Sambrailo Packaging in Watsonville, CA, is “a full-service packaging supplier for the berry and fresh vegetable industry here in California, and we also have locations in Mexico,” according to Jim Scattini, vice president of sales and marketing. “We are now in our 91st year,” and berries have a major focus of the company “for probably the last 45 years.”

Every season is different, but this season, at least early on, is bringing unusual challenges to the industry and to suppliers to the industry such as Sambrailo.

“What is most in the news right now is the water situation,” Scattini said. A severe drought in California, now in its third year and the driest yet, is having an effect not only in the Central Valley, usually the most affected by water shortages, but also on the coast, with all three major strawberry growing districts being affected.

Strawberry acreage is down in Oxnard, “probably because of the lack of water,” he said. A shortage of irrigation water and a lowering of water tables are a concern as are saltwater intrusion and lack of rainfall to leach salts out of the soil that can adversely affect the growth of strawberry plants.

On the other hand, unusually warm winter weather is bringing the Oxnard and Santa Maria crops on faster than usual, and the lack of rainfall has meant that that there has not been the thinning of the crop from rain which is usually expected through the winter and early spring period.

It all adds up to a different production curve from normal. Volume is stronger than usual early on, but projecting volume further out is challenging.

It has all “made everybody’s job even more volatile than it normally is in produce,” and in strawberries in particular, Scattini said. On the packaging side, the challenge will be “managing the inventory and the packaging supplies for the growers in our customer base.”

Just what the effect will be, “we don’t know yet,” but “the volatility could make things touch-and-go,” he said.

In Santa Maria, for example, “things are probably going to be a little bit early … because of the weather, but there might be some volume issues due to the drought we are all experiencing.”

Sambrailo has warehouses in Santa Maria and Oxnard as well as in Wastsonville.

“We don’t want to be carrying extra inventory on our books” in any of those locations, “but we can’t short our customers either.” Whatever the season brings in terms of the timing and flow of the harvest and the ups and downs of volume, “we’ve got to be ready to go” when the berries are.

What will give Sambrailo’s customers an edge in the light of this year’s challenges, he said, is “our on-the-ground knowledge of the crop, our relationship with the growers, not just the shippers, and our day-to-day inventory management.”

One of the “unique” services of Sambrailo, Scattini said, is that “we do product design. In fact, we have our patented Mixim system on clamshells and the trays that they go in.” One of the features of the Mixim clamshell is “that it has smooth walls to help really increase consumer appeal and reduce mechanical damage to the berries.” In addition to the design of the products, what Sambrailo has to offer customers is “our inventory management of those product for our customers, whether it is a custom label or just a stock label that we maintain for our walk-up business.”

In addition to that, he said, “it is our pre-labeling of the product, which we do in-house. It is pre-folding the trays, which we do in-house. It is managing the inventory for those specific customers of their custom items and handling them out to their growers. We can deliver them, or they can come and pick up at any one of our sheds, whatever set-up works best for both parties.”